Clinical Experience of Auditory Brainstem Response Testing on Pediatric Patients in the Operating Room

Table 5

Potential factors affecting ABR outcomes in the operating room.

		Potential effects on ABR
Surgical-related factors	Surgical procedures	Temporary shift in thresholds
	Middle ear effusion	Elevation of thresholds
	Use of anesthesia medication	Poor ABR recording
Equipment-related factors	Power source	60 Hz interference on ABR recording
	Medical devices used in the operating room	Electromagnetic interferences
	Patients’ own medical devices	Electromagnetic interferences
	High level background noises	Elevation of low-frequency ABR thresholds
Patients’ physiologic and neurologic status	Changes in blood oxygen level, blood pressures and body temperature, and so forth.	Poor ABR waveforms, delays in ABR latencies, and reduction of ABR amplitude.